Europeans rally round Ukraine as Trump envoy heads to Moscow

KYIV/PARIS - European leaders rallied to show support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec 1 after

US-Ukrainian talks to revise a peace proposal

that initially favoured Russia, while Donald Trump's envoy headed to Moscow to brief the Kremlin.

Mr Zelensky was warmly received by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, and the two joined a call with about a dozen other European leaders including those of Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and the European Union.

Mr Zelensky told a joint press conference with Mr Macron after their meeting that Kyiv’s priorities in peace talks were to maintain sovereignty and ensure strong security guarantees, and that territorial disputes remained the most complicated.

He called on Ukraine’s Western allies to ensure Russia was not rewarded for the war it started, and said he hoped to hold talks with US President Donald Trump after Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has visited Russia this week.

Mr Macron told reporters that only Ukraine could decide on its territories in peace negotiations with Russia.

Earlier, Mr Zelensky made clear that Ukrainian and US negotiators had not yet fully hammered out revisions to a proposed US peace plan, despite two rounds of talks to adjust terms that initially endorsed Russia's main wartime demands.

There were "some tough issues that still have to be worked through", Mr Zelensky posted following Nov 30's US-Ukrainian talks, held at a Florida luxury golf resort built by Mr Trump's envoy and fellow real estate magnate Steve Witkoff.

Mr Witkoff left the talks to travel to Moscow where he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec 2.

Changes not made public

US and Ukrainian officials have yet to make public any amendments they have so far agreed to the 28-point plan which Washington presented to Kyiv less than two weeks ago.

Kyiv and its European allies have been pushing for revisions to terms, which called for Ukraine to give up more territory, curb the size of its army, renounce joining Nato and be barred from hosting Western troops. Ukraine says that would amount to capitulation, and leave it prone to eventual conquest by Russia, which invaded in 2014 and 2022.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hosted the talks at Mr Witkoff's Shell Bay club near Miami, said on Nov 30 Washington was "realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic, particularly given the fact that as we've made progress".

"There's more work to be done. This is delicate," Mr Rubio said. "There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there's another party involved here ... that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow."

Difficult juncture for Kyiv

The intensified negotiations have arrived at a difficult juncture for Kyiv, which has been losing ground at the front while facing the biggest corruption scandal of the war.

Mr Zelensky's chief of staff, who had also led the Ukrainian delegation at peace talks, resigned on Nov 28 after anti-corruption investigators searched his home. Two Cabinet ministers have been fired and a former business partner of Mr Zelensky has been named as a suspect.

Mr Trump, who promised to swiftly end the war, has expressed frustration that a deal seems to be elusive.

"Ukraine's got some difficult little problems," Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Nov 30, referring to the corruption scandal. He repeated his view that both Russia and Ukraine wanted to end the war and said there was a good chance a deal could be reached.

Russia bombards Ukrainian cities

Meanwhile, Russia has shown no sign of backing off its maximalist demands while its forces continue to make slow progress on the 1,200km front line.

At least four people were killed and 40 wounded, 11 of them in serious condition, when Russian missiles struck car repair shops in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Dec 1.

"Everyone fell to the floor, then we started to figure out where the employees were. I ran upstairs and saw that one guy was fine, but he was a bit covered in shrapnel," said Mr Vitalii Kovalenko, owner of one service station, adding that all his employees survived.

Russia said on Dec 1 its forces had captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine, Klynove in the Donetsk region. Reuters could not independently verify the situation there. Moscow has been saying it is on the verge of seizing the ruined city of Pokrovsk, its biggest prize in nearly two years.

Meanwhile, it has been bombarding Ukrainian cities nightly with long-range strikes, mainly targeting energy infrastructure, frequently leaving Ukrainians in cold and darkness as the war’s fourth winter sets in.

Ukraine, for its part, has been launching long-range strikes to target Russia’s oil exports. On Dec 1 the Kremlin denounced Ukrainian attacks on a Russian oil-exporting terminal that serves a pipeline from Kazakhstan, and on two tankers in the Black Sea. REUTERS